February 19, 2013 10:38 PM CSTFebruary 19, 2013 10:41 PM CSTGosselin: Long after playing days are over, Nolan Ryan and George Brett still leaving mark on baseball

Gosselin: Long after playing days are over, Nolan Ryan and George Brett still leaving mark on baseball

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LANE HICKENBOTTOM / AP

Nolan Ryan talks to Jeffrey Costigan of Farrel Elementary school Friday in the plane ride from Dallas to Houston. Ryan accompanied 39 'Top of the Fifth' students and each's favorite teacher on a day trip to visit his museum in Alvin. The kids, who were selected from an essay contest, then went to NASA Space Center in Houston.

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Cooperstown is just a speck on the
New York map, as is Surprise on the Arizona map.

But two baseball greats create a very large presence in those very small
towns.

George Brett and Nolan Ryan were enshrined together in Cooperstown’s Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1999. Since 2008, the two legends have shared the same spring
training complex with their respective teams in Surprise — Ryan as president of
the Rangers and Brett as vice president of baseball operations for the Kansas
City Royals.

You can find Ryan down the right-field line at the Rangers’ offices and Brett
down the left-field line at the Royals’ offices. What an incredible wealth of
baseball knowledge these two have to offer each spring in the westernmost tip of
Arizona’s spring training grid.

And it’s there for the asking.

“He’s there any time we need him,” Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison said of
Ryan. “He’s an open book.”

And what a story that book tells. Ryan pitched 27 seasons and struck out a
record 5,714 batters. He threw a record seven no-hitters and a record-tying 12
one-hitters. He was selected to baseball’s all-century team, and his number 34
has been retired by three franchises.

The man could pitch.

“For some guys, there may be an intimidation factor in talking to him — ‘Hey,
that’s Nolan Ryan,’” Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis said. “But
getting to know him over the years, he’s a super down-to-earth guy, the type of
guy who wants you to come up and talk to him, ask him questions and run things
by him. He wants to make an impact with this ballclub.”

Ryan already has.

“He brought an approach to this club that they didn’t have,” Rangers reliever
Joe Nathan said. “This was a club where the starters tried to survive five
innings and then get out of there.

“But he changed that approach. That’s no longer acceptable. He brought a
mental edge to this game — get yourself ready to go out and pitch into the
seventh and eighth and ninth innings.”

What Ryan instills in pitchers, Brett instills in hitters.

On most days this spring, you can find Brett at the batting cages working
with the organization’s young hitters. It’s hands-on instruction from one of the
greatest hitters the game has ever seen.

“Sometimes guys take him for granted,” Royals outfielder Jeff Francouer said.
“It’s like he’s here just hanging out and being one of the guys. It’s easy to
forget who he is and what he’s done.

“But the great thing is he’s always willing to tell you what he’s thinking
and lend a helping hand. He’s unbelievable at that. I’ve met quite a few Hall of
Famers, but he’s the most down-to-earth Hall of Famer I know.”

Brett spent all 21 of his seasons with the Royals and became one of only four
players in history with 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and a .300 career average,
joining fellow Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial.

Brett was the American League MVP in 1980 when he hit .390 — the closest
anyone in the AL has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams in 1941. Brett also
is the only player in history to win a batting title in three different
decades.

The man could hit.

“I can remember him hitting good pitches,” Ryan said. “That’s how you judge
the good hitters — he’s able to hit your best pitches. From a competitive
standpoint, he was always one of the toughest outs.”

How tough an out was Brett? Ryan surrendered more hits to Brett than any
other pitcher. But Brett has also struck out more against Ryan than any other
pitcher. And of Brett’s 317 career home runs, not a one came against Ryan.

“I remember he threw [expletive] hard and was mean,” Brett said. “If you
don’t believe me, ask Robin Ventura. I never hit a home run off him so I never
got hit. And if I ever did get hit by him, I don’t know that I’d charge the
mound after what I saw from Ventura.”

Ryan and Brett share a bond as first-ballot Hall of Famers. Both rank among
the top five vote-getters in Cooperstown history with Ryan receiving 98.8
percent of the vote and Brett 98.2 percent.

Yet the two have never crossed paths in this complex.

“Nolan is the nicest guy in the world,” Brett said, “but he’s got a few more
duties down here than I do. He’s running that organization. I’m just throwing
BP, hitting fungos and watching guys hit. I’m in uniform, he’s not. He’s making
day-to-day tough decisions, I’m not.”

Francouer played for the Rangers on their 2010 American League championship
team. He now starts in the outfield for the Royals. So he knows both Ryan and
Brett — and knows how competitive they are.

“It’d be fun to take them out to one of the back fields sometime this spring
and let them face each other,” Francouer said.

Now that would draw a crowd.

Listen to Rick Gosselin at 10:50 a.m. Tuesdays on The
Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310) with Norm Hitzges.

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About Rick Gosselin

MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB:
Sitting at the hotel bar with Jerry Jones that night in Orlando, Fla., in March 1994 when he decided he'd had enough of Jimmy Johnson as coach of the Cowboys.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:I played hockey for a media all-star team in Detroit and once scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings Old-Timers in a charity game at Olympia. As a high school player, I once scored a hat trick in a game at the Olympia. Love those "Original Six" buildings.

IF I HAD TWO SPARE HOURS, I WOULD:Take a golf lesson and learn how to hit a driver.

MOST MEMORABLE SPORTING EVENT I'VE COVERED:Impossible to pick just one, so I'll give you five, in no particular order:
- 1, My first Super Bowl - X between the Cowboys and Steelers.
- 2, 1983 NCAA basketball championship game between North Carolina State and Houston.
- 3, 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska.
- 4, 1971 baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, where all the future Hall of Famers homered and Reggie Jackson banged one off the light tower.
- 5, Speedskater Bonnie Blair's world-record sprints at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
- Honorable mention: Troy Aikman's first college start as a freshman at Oklahoma against Kansas. (He lost.)

Hometown: Detroit

Education: Graduated from Michigan State in 1972, then spent two years working news for United Press International in Detroit, two years working for UPI sports in New York, nine years working as UPI's Midlands sports editor in Kansas City, four years as Chiefs/NFL beat reporter for the Kansas City Star, two years as Cowboys writer for The Dallas Morning News and 12 years as the NFL writer for The News.